[Rick Craig]

 Before I started building my own designs I used a KEF 101 as my reference speaker (along with one of the first powered subs, a M&K Volkswoofer). The 101 was a variant on the Rogers LS3/5a which is considered to be one of the classics.

My goal was to have a monitor that will be a good fit for smaller rooms and possibly nearfield / desktop listening as well. The bass extension will allow it to be used stand alone and if someone wants to add a subwoofer the sealed box design will smoothly integrate with one. While I didn't aim to meet a price point it will be a great value at $995/pair including shipping (CONUS). More information coming soon!

 

[aevans]

Sounds exciting, the desktop audio scene is really taking off as it gets the room out of the way and give people good placement without eating up a ton of space like floor standers in a living room can do.

One thing I've noticed when reviewing desktop speakers and subwoofers is that when things vibrate/resonate bad sound happens. Also, integrating a sub near field is very hard as inverse square law gets crazy with close placement. An idea I had was to build a compact speaker that included two shallow mount subwoofers on the sides of the speaker butted back to back to cancel vibration/resonance, and use DSP to push the speaker flat. Shallow mount is to keep the baffle width as narrow as possible because wide baffle speakers near field sound a little dull compared to a narrow baffle. This is similar to what the KEF Blade does, as well as the Devialet Phantoms. Stick a nice Fountek ribbon and a 3 or 4 inch driver on the front using passive crossover parts and minidsp to cross between them/level match to the built in subs. That's the idea anyway, who knows if it's possible to do all that and keep the price reasonable.

[richidoo]

Rick brought the "little wonders" over to our G2G on Saturday. Everyone was very impressed. They play surprisingly low for the size. They sound very big, even following the Revel F208 floorstanders. They had good prat and the music sounds very wholesome as typical of Rick's crossovers. I was fooled a couple times getting drawn into the music only to be shocked when I snapped back to see the tiny speakers making all that big sound. The sensitivity is low, but I really like them.

Thanks for bringing them over Rick.

[jtwrace]

Yes, they were awesome!   

[jonbee]

I see they use the "new-ish" ribbon Rick has ben using lately. I have it in my Anniversarios, and it is very good sounding, probably the best tweeter I've heard  anywhere near its' low price.
I always liked the KEF 101 too. I thought it was the best ls3/5a spinoff of the era, and better than the original to my ears.
I'm sure these little guys are category killers.

[mresseguie]

Rick,

Got any specs on those li'l guys? [You know, frequency range, sensitivity, recommended power, etc.]

Can you make them with front slot ports or even down-firing ports?

Man, I wish I could have been there. You're all welcome to fly over here....

[Rick Craig]

I see they use the "new-ish" ribbon Rick has ben using lately. I have it in my Anniversarios, and it is very good sounding, probably the best tweeter I've heard  anywhere near its' low price.
I always liked the KEF 101 too. I thought it was the best ls3/5a spinoff of the era, and better than the original to my ears.
I'm sure these little guys are category killers.

Yes, my thoughts along the same lines as yours on the 101's versus the other variants. The KEF 105 was what started my quest for high-end speakers.

[AvFan]

Wow!  What are the dimensions of this speaker?  Any chance you've designed a matching center speaker? What is their -3 and -10db points?

[Rick Craig]

Rick brought the "little wonders" over to our G2G on Saturday. Everyone was very impressed. They play surprisingly low for the size. They sound very big, even following the Revel F208 floorstanders. They had good prat and the music sounds very wholesome as typical of Rick's crossovers. I was fooled a couple times getting drawn into the music only to be shocked when I snapped back to see the tiny speakers making all that big sound. The sensitivity is low, but I really like them.

Thanks for bringing them over Rick.

The front end  did a great job driving the speakers. Thanks for hosting! 

[Rick Craig]

Rick,

Got any specs on those li'l guys? [You know, frequency range, sensitivity, recommended power, etc.]

Can you make them with front slot ports or even down-firing ports?

Man, I wish I could have been there. You're all welcome to fly over here....

I should have the information in a few weeks. This is a sealed design with lower sensitivity as the tradeoff for bass extension. Typically an amp in the 50-80 watt/ch. range given that the expected listening distance will be moderate and / or in a smaller room. More power than that is fine as long as common sense is used; in fact, too little power with an amp driven heavily into clipping is more of an issue for any speaker.

[richidoo]

The front end  did a great job driving the speakers. Thanks for hosting! 

You're very welcome Rick! Thanks for lugging over those behemoths! 

fwiw, the amp was a 100W tube amp.

[Rick Craig]

Wow!  What are the dimensions of this speaker?  Any chance you've designed a matching center speaker? What is their -3 and -10db points?

12" (H) x 7.5" (W) x 11" (D). There are different center designs that could be made to match but I've not worked on any at this point. I'll post here when I have the measurement graphs.

[JoshK]

Curious how much BSC do these have and is that customizable?   I ask because I have a specific application where the bookshelfs sit on a mantle (brick) so little BSC is needed.  My current bookshelf speakers are way too bassy.

[Rick Craig]

Curious how much BSC do these have and is that customizable?   I ask because I have a specific application where the bookshelfs sit on a mantle (brick) so little BSC is needed.  My current bookshelf speakers are way too bassy.

The crossover in this pair was designed to be smoother when placed away from the rear wall. I would have to go back to my software to give you a BSC figure; however, I can easily tweak the design for your placement.

[groovybassist]

I got a chance to hear these at the Carolina GTG - was surprised at the level of finish and sound for the price.  I also liked the fact they were sealed - I wish there were more sealed speakers options out there.

-Mike

[richidoo]

I also liked the fact they were sealed

Me too, the bass clarity was my first impression. Surprising for such a small driver. It has very large cone excursion for its size.

[Rick Craig]

Update - I named this new mini-monitor "Compatto" which means "compact" in Italian. I've also just finished the response measurements and am shipping them off today for review. After that this demo pair will be available for a great price!

[jtwrace]

Update - I named this new mini-monitor "Compatto" which means "compact" in Italian. I've also just finished the response measurements and am shipping them off today for review. After that this demo pair will be available for a great price!

Can you post them? 

[Rick Craig]

Can you post them?

Yes I will post them when I have time - possibly later today. I'm finishing up a pair of Tempestas for a customer in Athens,GA and also working on a soundbar crossover design (along with the other new monitor I posted). Busy day!

[Rick Craig]

As promised, some performance graphs. Please note the on/off-axis curves are ungated in order to show the full in-room response below 200hz so there is more ripple in the curve above 200hz than normal. The 20-200hz bass curve is nearfield - no room gain!